Ex-Cotabato mayor back as chair of MNLF faction

MORO LEADERS Former Cotabato City Mayor Muslim in Sema (right) looks on as MILF chair Ahod “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim (in barong Tagalog) greets MNLF founding chair Nur Misuari during the anniversary of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process last year. —PHOTO COURTESY OF DARWIN WEE/OPAPP

ZAMBOANGA CITY—An old guard of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has taken over the leadership of a faction of the group following the death of its chair, Yusop Jikiri, last month.

Muslimin Sema, a former mayor of Cotabato City, has been appointed MNLF chair by the group’s central committee during a recent meeting in Maguindanao province

Jikiri, a former governor and representative of Sulu province, died of bone cancer on Oct. 17. He was the former military chief of the MNLF before the group split into factions. Peace agreement

Acknowledged as a revolutionary by his peers, Jikiri also served as chair of an MNLF faction in 2017. In 2001, he joined top MNLF leaders, including Sema, in bolting from the leadership of MNLF founding chair Nur Misuari to form the MNLF Council of 15.

Sema led the faction from 2008 until he turned over the reins to Jikiri in 2017, and focused on building the Bangsamoro People’s Congress, the MNLF’s electoral arm.Sema said the MNLF was reaffirming its commitment to the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) that it signed with the government under the auspices of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

“We also assure our dedication to work, along with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in the spirit of convergence and collaboration, in establishing a genuine, lasting peace in the Bangsamoro homeland,” he said.

“This is in keeping [up] with our stance that only by peaceful efforts can the Mindanao Moro issue hounding the Philippines since the late 1960s be solved to the benefit of all in the southern Philippines and the Bangsamoro region,” he added.

Sema was MNLF secretary general during the negotiations for the FPA. He served as Misuari’s executive secretary during the latter’s early days as governor of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

With the exception of the faction led by Misuari, the MNLF participated in establishing the Bangsamoro autonomous entity. Its members are now part of the interim government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which replaced the ARMM.